Stalling at Idle

**Levey** · 04-27-2011, 07:32 PM

Hey guys, just bought an 02 SS yesterday after about a year of drooling over them. It has 81,000 miles and is an A4. It has a TSP 228R cam, TSP 7.400 pushrods, TSP offroad y-pipe, TSP longtube headers, 3600 stall. The car was built and tuned by Performance Auto in Richmond, VA. Before I bought the car I experienced a single "stalling at idle" incident when pulling up to a light at running temperature. When I came home, I searched online to see what kind of problems I would be looking at if/when I bought it. I found threads bringing up the MAF, IAT, etc etc. I fell in love with the car as soon as I saw it and sat in it, and figured all that matters in the end is that the car matches exactly what I was looking for. I have no regrets but would like to get this one hiccup out of the way. The car only dies on me occasionally. It's always at idle, usually (75% of the time that it happens) when stopping the car while backing up to put it in drive. It idles consistently at 1k RPM while sitting still. The car runs amazing and shifts firm and accurately everytime when I put my foot in it, it's just the occasional "lope, lobe, stall" when idling. Am I wrong to think this is not necessarily a serious problem? The dealer I bought it from seemed to not know much about LS1's and didn't seem capable of flashing the car back to stock specs so I don't think the tune is off or gone. Anybody have any experience with this that found a sure (or close to it) solution?
Thanks in advance, and glad to say I'm finally an 02 SS owner!

**0rion** · 04-27-2011, 07:52 PM

first off....if the tune is flashed back to stock it most likely wouldn't even run. That being said this sounds like a prime candidate for a less than optimal tune. Sounds like a tuning issue to me. Keep in mind I'm going off of 1 paragraph there but it sounds like your running airflow tables aren't right. The good news is you're 2 hours from what is arguably one of the best LSx tuners in the country. Check out www.tunedbyfrost.com and I would highly recommend getting with him and having him look at or redo your tune.

**Levey** · 04-27-2011, 07:56 PM

Yea, I tried to put as much detail as possible in my brief explanation of my situation. If the simple trouble shooting methods yield no improvement, I agree 100% with the decision to go knock on the door of Frost. Thanks for the input!

**0rion** · 04-27-2011, 07:57 PM

have you cleaned your MAF and things like that? Start there but from what you're describing it sounds like your idle air isn't right.

**Levey** · 04-27-2011, 08:01 PM

I'm going to clean the MAF within the next couple of days (friend has cleaner/experience doing it). This process seems pretty straightforward. I'm not really familiar with "idle air" though

**0rion** · 04-27-2011, 08:04 PM

cleaning the maf is a piece of cake. Get CRC MAF cleaner from the parts store. If you don't use MAF cleaner make sure you use a non-residue electrical cleaner. Take the MAF off the car and just hose the crap out of it front and back. Don't touch the resistors because they're fragile. Just spray them down real good. Put the MAF back on and you're ready to rock.
Idle airflow is determined by a few tables in the computer. Frost will have to adjust the tune to fix it. That really sounds to me to be your issue.

**Levey** · 04-27-2011, 08:07 PM

Alright, sounds like a pretty narrow scope of potential culprits of the problem. If the tune is indeed the problem, I feel like going to Frost and dropping $450 will be well worth it and my car may not only lose the occasional stall problem, but also run better overall. Is this a fair assumption?

**0rion** · 04-27-2011, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by Levey

Alright, sounds like a pretty narrow scope of potential culprits of the problem. If the tune is indeed the problem, I feel like going to Frost and dropping $450 will be well worth it and my car may not only lose the occasional stall problem, but also run better overall. Is this a fair assumption?

yes....and there's a good chance you'll pick some HP up. I'm not familiar with Performance Auto but Frost may have heard of them since they're somewhat local and can tell you more on where your tune probably stands. I will say you'll want to rule out anything mechanical before going to get it tuned. Be a wasted trip to go there only to find out it's a mechanical issue and not the tune. Get with frost on here and swap some PM's with him or send him an email and he'll get you hooked up. He's a really good dude.

**transamtom** · 04-28-2011, 01:36 AM

It could also be a small vacuum leak causing the stall issue.

**0rion** · 04-28-2011, 03:35 AM

Originally Posted by transamtom

It could also be a small vacuum leak causing the stall issue.

good advice.....may want to go over all the lines and look for cracks. The backside of the pcv line where it turns to go into the intake likes to split. The reason I kinda ruled that out was due to the fact his idle is probably about where it should be with that cam. A lot of times a vacuum leak will make it idle much higher.

**Levey** · 04-28-2011, 05:05 AM

Well, I'm calling Frost today, but upon further research, found out the shop my car was tuned at is the same place Frost calls home. It makes sense, because the previous owner said Steve Williams tuned my car. I'm going to call them today and tell them what's going on and probable make the trip down there since they know my car better than I do.